As the plane got closer to Miami, I had this terrible feeling he was dying. Maybe he was telling me that he was going. I felt anger, panic, despair and helplessness.

Gibb describes the intuitive dread that can accompany imminent bereavement: a sense, even at a distance, that a loved one is slipping away. The piling up of emotions—anger, panic, despair, helplessness—captures grief not as a single feeling but as a cascade of conflicting reactions, including rage at the unfairness of events and frustration at one’s inability to intervene. The line “Maybe he was telling me that he was going” frames death as a final, wordless communication, suggesting a bond so close that it seems to transmit across space. The quote’s power lies in its immediacy and vulnerability, presenting loss as both psychic shock and emotional overload.